I am the author of several books on technology and innovation. My new book, "Big Bang Disruption," co-authored with Paul F. Nunes, is now available. My earlier books include the New York Times best-seller, “Unleashing the Killer App" and "The Laws of Disruption."

Not catastrophic numbers, to be sure, but, coupled with the vocal response to my article, it capped a very bad week for the company’s senior management. Analysts began talking about a private equity takeover.

Later that day, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn published his own long blog post, which he titled “My thoughts on Best Buy’s recent media coverage.” Though Dunn’s post doesn’t reference Forbes directly, most of the subsequent press coverage assumes it was written in response to my original article. Dunn’s reply also closely mirrors the internal script that was sent to me on Wednesday.

Dunn, who has been CEO since 2009, began by acknowledging two points of my criticism which he thinks “got it right”: the cancellation of Christmas orders and the slow implementation of the company’s “customer-centric” strategy. He wrote:

The cancellation of some internet orders just before Christmas was our fault, and it’s not representative of how we EVER want to treat our customers. I’ll spare you the technical explanation of how and why it happened, but we know we did not deliver a good experience and we’re truly sorry. We’ve worked to make amends with customers whose holidays were made less happy because of our mistake, and we’re working diligently to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

That’s a much better apology than the one I quoted in my original article. (“Due to overwhelming demand of hot product offerings on BestBuy.com during the November and December time period, we have encountered a situation that has affected redemption of some of our customers’ online orders.”) Dunn admits that it was the company’s fault, not a “situation” it “encountered,” and doesn’t pretend that the “November and December time period” is something less crucial than the holiday season.

On the other hand, it’s easy to apologize weeks after the fact, after 30,000 customers have already been given the non-apology from managers and customer service reps.

More to the point, my criticism wasn’t so much the failure of Best Buy to manage its inventory or to identify the back order problem in time for customers to make other arrangements so much as the effort to distance itself from the problem through obtuse language that made the company look as if it, not the customers, was the victim. Dunn now says the cancellation was the company’s fault, which gets to my actual criticism. Since I wasn’t one of the affected customers, I can’t say whether the belated apology will be acceptable to those whose efforts at “redemption” of their orders were “affected.”

(The initial failure to take responsibility, by the way, turns out to be worse than I thought. A company insider sent me what appears to be the official script given to customer service personnel sometime after Dec. 14 in response to the cancellations. “Recently,” according to the instructions, “some media outlets have been bringing attention to Best Buy’s recent cancelled customer backorders. Please ensure that you are utilizing the following messaging when speaking with a concerned customer.” After reading the message (“Due to overwhelming…”), CSRs were instructed to “Verbalize empathy to our customers regarding the cancellation of their backorder.”)

Dunn also thinks I got it right with regard to the company’s lack of integrated operations and I.T. systems (the “technical details” his reply “spares” us):

Another area where we have received fair criticism is the overall speed of the transformation of our business model – something we are working hard to address. We’ve accelerated changes to key elements of our model already (the significant expansion in the number of products available on Bestbuy.com and the launch of our online Marketplace are two recent examples), but we need to move even faster, particularly in creating a more seamless experience between our stores, web sites, call centers and services teams. We recognize people can and do shop from anywhere, and they expect thoughtful, helpful interactions from us every step of the way. We continue to invest in a number of areas – from employee training, to critical system enhancements – to ensure our customers always receive the kind of experience they deserve and expect from us, wherever and whenever they choose. But, simply put, that work needs to happen faster – and we’re taking significant steps to accelerate the pace.

As I put it in my original article, quoting from “Killer App”: to survive the transformation to Internet commerce, an existing business needs to ensure continuity for the customer, not for itself. Dunn apparently agrees, though it still isn’t clear what has taken the company over a decade to get it right.

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Most of the big box retail stores have inept people on the sales floor as well as higher prices than what is found online. The only reason I go to the local stores is if I need something right away.. and even then it’s a hit and miss if they do have what I’m looking for. While your story got the enough coverage to get the CEO’s attention, the emails you got shows that it is not a unique story. We all have ‘been there’ unfortunately, we as individual customers are like ants yelling at a monster… hopefully if we all join together we can make a difference when it comes to them offering us decent customer service. Good job on the article.

Yea, don’t mention how all of those customers that had there orders canceled received a 50 dollar gift card. Pfh, 50 dollars is nothing right?

Whats funny to me is that you were “fuming” from some kid getting paid 9.50 to simply ask you a few questions. Was it too hard for you to say “I’m not interested, thanks”. Even better is I doubt the guy was even a best buy employee… He was probably affiliated with Direct TV or one of those other package companys. And to be honest I probably wouldnt have helped you find the blue ray after you talked to me like that either.

I like how you write this big article on how bad the customer service is and yet here you are being a complete jerk to some dude trying to do his job. Goes both ways.

I for one am a former best buy employee from burbank ca and i can honestly say im happy that this company will go out of buisness soon the managers are scum ! the distric managers are worse! ive seen so many of my co workers get screwed over by these managers ! i have so much dirt on these managers i can have them fired but im not a evil person like that ! its honestly the worst place to work as a young adult i would steer your kids away from a job there managers treat you like dirt for not getting customers to buy there worthless products and services ! they make us at times work longer after our pay and it may seem stupid for a employee to do that but we get promised the world and get nothing in the end unless your a brown nose! BEST BUY IN BURBANK CA DONT BUY!!!

I am still shocked that Best Buy allows third party (MLM) in there stores to push product. These vultures prey opon you when you shop in the store. They are like sharks they smell blood in the water when your shopping for a TV. I question any company that allows this. I would say it is very short cited and over a period of time will decrease traffic in your store. I would not allow a 3rd party rep to ruin my customers experience as CEO wake up.

@fishfunk – $50 is nothing when the majority of your christmas shopping was done…. or so you thought. It went something like this:

-about three hours researching what I wanted to buy and comparing prices to place several orders across amazon, best buy, and others -waiting weeks to find out why my order hadn’t shipped – after checking the site for shipment updates, writing an e-mail, calling, and waiting for some kind of follow-up that ended up being a notice of cancellation -spending about 6 or 7 hours cleaning up the mess created by my order being cancelled; visiting other retailers locally to find the items, giving up on some altogether, and rushing orders online to ensure they arrived in time -about $65 lost in having to pay higher prices as a result of the cancellation

My time is important to me, so $50 IS nothing in the face of the time I don’t get back, the stress of having to make sure presents were where they needed to be, and the general lack of help from BB when seeking their assistance. That coupled with ending up having to pay more anyway was a pretty awful slap to the face.

I agree. You can’t possibly control the customer experience when you invite/pay for/share revenue with third party reps who are out of your control. Their behavior invariably reflects on your brand, whether you want it to or not is irrelevant. Can you imagine, for example, Disney allowing its vendors or business partners to roam the parks selling “complementary” goods and services? If the in-store experience is your competitive advantage, you can’t diminish it at any price.

Larry agree 100%. In today’s day and age of on line shopping Best Buy should understand that it is extremely important that the in store experience be nothing other than great. Have staff that is informed and helpful when needed. If they continue this practice of allowing 3rd party groups to push product they will over time keep eroding their customer base.

It smells of desperation. Yes you can measure the increase in sales today but I ask Best Buy can you measure the long term effect on your business?

Just think if Best Buy Corporate allows and promotes this marketing why would the local manager’s care and that is where the problem lies. They lose 1 customer after another and just shrug it off and say who cares it’s only 1 customer.

I followed the link posted in the article to read Brian Dunn’s rebuttal. I read the comments of people in response to that, and comment #37 is an interesting defense of Best Buy. I may be reading it wrong, but is that comment from Ken Greene or Mr. Brian Dunn? If it’s Mr. Dunn using an alias, it’s pretty pathetic.

37.”Sir, I think that it is good that you are responding to the attacks on Best Buy. I am a former Associate with Best Buy, and still a very loyal customer. I find that like most retailers, there is never enough help, but that is part of trying to compete with the online retailers, it is hard to always have as much help as you like. I did, however, shop in my local Best Buy in Snellville, Georgia over the Christmas Holidays, and was pleasantly surpised at the level of service and friendy folks working hard to make sure that I did not leave without getting everything that I needed…and yes, I did get offered a protection plan, which is a good thing. I have saved a lot of money over the years by being able to protect my purchases. It really comes down to the Leadership at the local Best Buy, when you come right down to it…The standard that they set everyday in how they treat their employees and Guests, makes all the difference in the world. As for me, I will continue to shop at Best Buy and root for better times. Keep the faith, hard work always pays off in the end…

I personally work at a Best Buy, like any retail store you have great times working there and other times you dislike every single minute of it. I have read and reread the articles and the response from CEO Brian Dunn. I myself see there are many opportunities for the company to fix itself. The problem is the company does not know what it wants to be. Does it want to be a destination for the latest and greatest or do they want to be destination for “hot value” laptops. We sell these products but at the same time are discouraged to sell them and up-sell them to something superior. As an employee and tech afficionado I know most people are buying laptops for price not because of specifications. So why discourage the sales of these laptops, if there is so much angst against these laptops let’s not sell them and be a boutique store of Microsoft Premium and Apple Laptops. Best Buy locations are not equipped to sell this lower priced laptops, not enough employees per store, or they open stores where not necessary because there is another location only 20 minutes down the road, instead of filling the higher tiered stores. On the issue of “inept” employees, I personally see it. The company does hire people who have no idea of technology other than turning a computer on and using the “blue e” icon on the desktop to get on the “internet” (in reality the web is coming to them and the internet is the combination of protocols, the web and emails working together). I have a huge problem with this level of ineptitude of hired employees or they create new positions and employee leaders who know nothing of the products that they are trying to sell other than some specific item and number or “goal” they are trying to achieve. Create a “sales specialist” position the most knowledgeable and best sales people in the store then change the way it works a month later and change what it is suppose to be to push another product that makes Best Buy more money and place someone in the head who knows nothing of the department because they are from another department. I myself am very knowledgeable and know what I speak when I talk to the customer. I have never lied to a customer and always receive high regards from those customers but I personally tell them not to do the survey or talk to my managers; I personally do not care for recognition I am doing my job. I also dislike third party vendors, and reps, they slow down my role as an employee, are usually not very knowledgeable and have horrible customer experience but what can I do Best Buy and these third party vendors have to make money somehow. All in all I may have several complaints about Best Buy, but at the end of the day I do enjoy my job. It awesome flexibility for those who go to school, which im going for, studying Internet Services Technology, highly knowledgeable in Apple, Microsoft and Linux products. I love all the new technology that comes through the doors and get to play with it first. It doesn’t pay well but what retail store does? I would wish you Larry Downes would come into my store and actually experience a Best Buy the way it should be, please excuse the third party reps though. Quiz me on any product sold in my Computers and Tablets department and I will have an answer, and if I do not I will not fluff one, I will not try to sell you things that you do not need, I will meet all of your computing needs. I go with what’s right for the customer and give them the right experience. I go against managers sometimes and what they want, and yet I am a Full Timer working there three years and one of the best employees for that store. I know not all stores are like mine, but what can I do about that, nothing. I know it is a lot to write and it is a ramble, but I would hope this would catch your attention. Best Buy can truly be a great company and great place to go when wanting something technological, they just need to stop comparing to past financial numbers and think of the future and stop making excuses of why something went wrong and remedy the situation, or issue and move ahead, and when they do something right do not change it adding other things that will not work. Ramble over.

Former employee here as well but not in CA. I try not to give BBY much thought these days. I worked there for 5 years and about 4 of those I was in leadership. Where is the toxicity developed in BBY? I had several bad managers that by the company standards were “Achievers.” For the customer on the outside this is what they see. Brian Dunn should go on a surprise road show and pop in during leadership meetings and take a look at the performance management rhythm of the leaders. Too many politics in the stores.

lopez, Thanks for the positive notes in your reply. I also work at Best Buy but in Greenville, SC in the computer dept. too. I spend my free time researching new products as they arrive or the Kindle vs. Nook tablet debate that was going on. I do not push anything onto my customers but I do help them make informed decisions. For instance when the Kindle was waiting for an update bc of a too quick release in my mind, they did push the update but the issue was before Christmas. Customers appreciate the friendly, knowledgeable staff. No store has this 100% of the time and I have heard many complaints even at my store. It is much easier to complain when you feel neglected or not helped I should say, but the customers I encounter NEED to pick my brain, they need my help for which router, cable or modem, why 2 vs 8 Gb and 320 vs. 500 HDD. I personally try to give each and every customer the same time, attention and information they need and deserve. I have had many repeat customers bc of the knowledge I possess…. yes I am pursuing a degree in Networking also so not all of us are walking around clueless :) No matter what the reviews and comments are I am being paid for my services and when I am on BB time that is exactly what I give with full dedication. It is sad that a handful of truly hard workers (although I believe it to be more), get the all around how dumb we are. Thank goodness my customers tell me how much they appreciate my help….

The time has come for Mr. Dunn to step aside, or fired by the board. The new CEO should be an outsider to cleanup the senior management mess. They all want to dance to the tunes of wallstreet metrics and don’t care about long term plans or how thousands of employees and their families will be affected if it goes out of business. BBY has customes issues for years, and online commerce is going on for years. If they still can’t figure out, it is too late. Just look at Netflix, though the stock went down, it is the right move to separate streaming vs mailing..

Another brilliant post. Definitely buying your book. I also feel like you’ve given somewhat of a voice to all the disgruntled customers that have been wronged by the poor customer service of Best Buy. I really wish Dunn and delved further into their poor customer service, because that’s really the root of the problem. Whether it’s cancelled internet orders or just treating someone in one of their B&Ms poorly, it all comes down to poor customer service. Your response reiterates this and your comment that he set up a straw man and knocked it down is spot on. He’s mincing words and beating around the bush. Where’s the accountability? What is he going to do to make it right? Nothing. None of us that don’t go there anymore will ever be satisfied anymore because they are riding that wave of people that aren’t angry enough yet just like you said. Then, when things start getting worse and worse they’ll be filing for bankruptcy and scrambling to improve things, but it will be too late because I’ve already gone elsewhere. But Dunn will get his parting bonus and go ruin another company.

We own two Nooks and the storefront technical support is a large selling point. All the employees are readers themselves and quickly help out.

I usually read using an Android phone rather than one of the Nooks. My shopping process is to browse the storefront and keep a wish list on my phone. Latter, I compare Amazon, B&N and Google Books and purchase the cheapest.

B&N could get more of my sales if I could scan a book cover on my phone using the Nook app and have it automatically added to an on-line B&N wish list. (I wish the app would also store my last page on-line so I can quickly switch devices.)

The convenience of not manually typing titles and easy on-line wish list purchases would make price shopping less attractive.

The Book market is definitely on-line and B&N has/is facing tremendous issues, but B&N storefronts provide a better “book discovery” showroom than on-line only stores.

Maybe the Best Buy CEO should visit both B&N storefronts and on-line and see how they have made lemon-aid from what is commonly considered a lemon.

Another great article. I don’t remember if I commented on your first one (I usually don’t if there are already tons of comments), but you and your reader-commenters hit the nail on the head.

The in-store customer service is THE asset that Best Buy could be using to delight their customers. Instead, they have very little product knowledge and do the opposite.

By the way, Radio Shack is quickly going in the same direction. They need to learn that informed customers aren’t going to go to Radio Shack to buy a cell phone plan, digital picture frame, or MP3 player accessories- we can get all of those things cheaper elsewhere. Where Radio Shack has a HUGE advantage is that they are the store I know I should go to if I need ANY electronic component- switches, cables, wires, HDMI, TV antennas, etc.

But what is their staff educated on? Phone plans, headsets, picture frames, and MP3 player accessories. I go in there looking for a stereo audio cable switch (to switch between two devices that will input to one speaker), and they guy steers me away from my suggestion that turned out to be the right answer, and steered me toward what I knew was a wrong answer (I convinced him it was also a wrong answer). It turns out they had what I needed, and if the guy had been smarter, I would have spent $20 that day. Instead, I concluded that they didn’t have what I needed and spent $0.

I completely agree. As a long time Sales Associate of RS, now SM, the company does not offer enough training for our employees into the smaller items. Thankfully the new directives for 2012 fix that issue to a small extent. I can honestly say, if I went to a different RS and asked the same question, I would probably have seen the same answer as you did. Thankfully in my current and previous store, we made a point to learn those items. As you say, more than half of our customers come in looking for those smaller items, not easily found outside the internet sales market.

I can say there are multitudes of markers popping up here and there showing how even RS is having some serious issues. The previous CEO did the same thing as Best Buy and instead of fixing the issues brought up to him by critics/customers, he figured it would be better to clear out 94% of the senior sales reps/store managers. As sad as it is to say, out of 5600 stores, I am one of the few with more than 9 years experience in our company, my DM, RM, RSD, and even our RVP (Retail Vice President), are newer to the company than 5 years.

That directive has thankfully been replaced with a different model of customer services first. If we managers are not taking care of our customers and we receive multiple surveys below 70% satisfaction, we will be on our way to unemployment (this is why we print and circle the surveys on the bottom of each receipt). I can say this though, it has brought alot of the bad stores/managers to light in the company using this method. We have, in my district alone, seen an increase of customer satisfaction by over 35%.

I can defenitely say things are slowly looking up for RS, but there are still plenty of problems that need fixing before they can even hope to be in a safer spot than even Best Buy at this point. Please feel free to look into our company. I am sure you will see alot of the same indications as you did with Best Buy, but hopefully, you will also be able to find some of the positives. If not, then RS may be next before Best Buy. I personally dont think so, but I do have SM goggles with RS on :). Amazing article, keep up your amazing work.

Bravo, Bravo Mr. Downes. I think that the article was right on the money and that is why I feel compel to write again seeing that Mr Dunn is still missing the bigger picture that your article brought to the table. Best buy needs to go back and re-think about its strategy, it is clear from the response of your article that WE the CUSTOMER still feel that Mr. Dunn should stop wasting his time on responding to the media and maybe sitting down with you and other successful people on how he can come up with a better strategy , lets face it it is not a secret anymore Best Buy is struggling in the market we live today, and they are still trying to say otherwise. As a matter of fact if anything Best Buy and Mr Dunn should thank you and all that commented to your past article that we are concern and interested enough to let him and Best Buy know what they are doing wrong so that they can fix it. Mr Dunn, you should feel lucky that people are interested enough to tell you where you are going wrong , look at it this way I think we are more concern about you not loosing the battle and your job then your own self. I personally would hate to see Best Buy go down but Best Buy needs to focus on GREAT customer service. Once again awesome job on the article.

i don’t know where to begin, first i would like to address the myth that best buy employees are trained to see customers as walking targets. they are trained to build relationships with customers to make them purchase now but also remain as a loyal customer. they are trained to provide mention all the little accessories like hdmi cables memory cards, cases and many other things. they all have uses most of them need to be used in conjunction with the hardware for better use of course some are over the top for example if you bought a 720p 32 inch t.v and got the $120 monster wire… you’re way over the top… but also if you bought the 55 in 1080p 240hz 3d t.v and did not buy ANY hdmi wire you should have bought a 55 in 720p 60hz. of course employees are driven by managers to upsell but thats where you come in and make your desicion… Best Buy employees are not paid commission so they will not coerce you into anything they will mention the product but will not “go hard” for you to get it, there are always options best buy has great variety i.e HDMI wires for $24 to well over $100 look around. i hope somehow that i clarified things a bit with my rough examples. I would like to remind everyone that Best Buy sales associates don’t earn commission they get paid hourly… which brings me to my next topic… people complain about bad customer service this is mostly because employees have no incentive to fully take care of the customer and even follow up on purchases.. in the perfect world i live in i follow up on customers and love when i get C.U’S or people that come and ask specifically for YOU. even though this never has a positive or negative effect in my pocket… but honestly speaking best buy’s pay policy is complete communism if i sell well i get paid and if i don’t I STILL GET PAID. so there is no incentive for the young sales people in best buy to do any better. which brings me to the next topic ” inept sales people” as mr Juan Sanchez mentioned below best buy doesn’t seem to retain any talent. at wages from 9 to 11 dollars an hour and miniscule raises the average employee stays for roughly over a year which is just enough time for them to get trained in everything they need to know and then they find a better paying position elsewhere. which brings me to my last point most (smart) bestbuy employees defect after a few years which leaves the less than proficient employees behind to go up the ranks or they get people from the outside hire them to fill important corporate possitions which generates a huge vaccum or separation between Corporate and the actual sales people … so the decision makers never set a foot in the stores and just go by statistics and sales trends… and you should see what a circus a bestbuy becomes when corporate is there… corporate is always trying to fix something they don’t know about and make it worst… which pisses of all the sales people and also corporate adding to the divide… information does not travel well up the ranks.. best buy could also do a lot better if the concentrated on fixing their problems in Best Buy U.S before trying to open stores all over china and the U.K with the same problems. i would also recomend to stop wasting millions of dollars buying have-been chains and other less than profitable ventures like rhapsody

You know as well as I do that that’s complete malarkey. If you don’t sell, your hours get cut. Maybe your store hasn’t gone in that direction yet, but they will. BBY is virtually commissioned now, as much as they don’t want to admit it. As I had it explained to me by a manager once, who do you want on the sales floor most of the time? Someone who can sell, or someone who can’t?

I can tell you as an employee, a student and a single mother of a 12 and 14 yr old…. there is no commission. Yes, there are young people who don’t know a whole lot and I am sure that hurts them in a certain way but with the desire to learn it is not rocket science if you have a beginning in the area you are working in and before you are allowed on the floor Best Buy requires you to take approx 80 Elearnings. (these are study skills you must pass to make sure you are knowledgeable in your area.. a foundation). But that is rambling on… seriously if we made commission it would be great yes, but I also think some customers would not be taken care of as thoroughly….

Thank you for the much needed follow-up. I was a little vexed at your first article as it failed to mention a few key points.

Many years back in ’93 being part of the <1% (Those online at the time) I saw the birth of digital revolution from the start. I am no longer that <1%. With the world changing, I whole heartedly agree that Best Buy will either need to change or die slowly. There are some immediate changes that Best Buy needs make to overall impact the customer experience to survive.

The first is metrics. No longer should the company be competative with itself. This is a failing model. I do understand that you need a way to gauge a stores overall health but doing so at the cost of your own business is self-inflicting. Store-to-store/Store-to-dotcom competition is draconian and needs to end immediately. You are one store, treat it as so.

Employees, your main real asset directly affecting/interacting with customers. Please treat us as an asset. Since I started with the company over 5 years ago, working with customers has turned from an experience to an interaction. With less training, staffing, labor hours, more responsibilities and "management" (will get into that next), Best Buy turned from a fun interactive experience with each customer to a "get all" with customers. Both customers and employee's morals have shown their disdain towards the company actions and it has reflected on the companys overall health.

Management. I know this will be a tough challenge to face. How to manage employees to make sure they give the customer the best possible experience while trying to thrive in a tougher economy. Hounding of customers/employees, delagation of work that management is responsible for onto lower paid employees, brown-nosing, no flexibility, not customer facing, no tasking and a slew of other problems will not fly going into the future. Management should be the support of customer satisfaction, not a crutch to hold to. I do know that Best Buy has been actively pursuing to change this over the last few (~<6) months by actively shifting management positions and weeding out the dead weight (Hundreds of managers/GM's across the nation) but this needs to be accelerated. There are far too many coporate/territory/district/store managers who's inability to change will be the death of the company.

Outsourcing. Either fix it, drop it or handle it internally. If you want to set yourself apart from an online retailer by having a physical presence, you need to back your products. There is a reason why your appliance section and home theatre sections have declined over the years. With no accountability on behalf of the company, your service plans (or "Black Tie Protections") have turned into a headache of an expensive piece of paper.

Systems. Did you know that Best Buy has well over 10 completely different systems on how to handle customer sales/service/returns. With little redundancy and less training for employees, it has literally become "The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing".

Layout. In fact you pointed this out in your first article. Your friend wanted to get a copy of a movie that only Best Buy carried. You looked and couldnt even find the correct section for your main reason for the visit, this is intentional. I've seen complete chunks of the store completely re-arranged sometimes up to 3-4 in a week making it very difficult for customers to find the right products they were looking for, even if they frequently visit Best Buy. They then compounded this with a new layout model called "connected" stores. The "concept" was great, execution was a failure. The criterion to force an employee onto a customer to almost make any purchase for upselling is a strategy that may have worked in the past on the un-educated customer but consumers are more educated now than ever. Make it easier for customers to find the right products they need without being forced to pair with an employee. Its just as frustrating for employees not to know where product has moved to as it is for the customer.

These are the main flaws seen throughout the company. If these are not addressed immediately, any other coporate strategy to gain/winback customers is doomed to fail within the "system". The balance (and positive customer experience) may come with a hybrid system of membership club/retail store but not until these glaring problems are addressed.

i would like to see Mr Dunn and many of his top executives replaced by a bunch of accounting, finance, and marketing degree holders who also happened to be long time best buy sales people, supervisors and store managers. i have seen too many times a fellow worker get his degree and run full speed away from best buy with obious reasons… less than $20 an hour and stagnant carreer growth

Let me preface this post with the fact that I am currently employed by Best Buy. I know that my company is not perfect, not by any stretch of the imagination, but we can offer more than typical retailers when it comes to merging online and in-store sales. For instance, we will match our website’s pricing on the vast majority of products that we have to offer. There are not many retailers that offer consumers that ability. Walk into a Barnes & Noble, or even Target and Wal-mart for that matter, and ask them to match their website prices. With regard to aggressive upselling tactics, how can we do it better? Everybody does it, even Amazon. They have extended policies, a credit card, and they also offer that wonderful “… user’s also purchased Items X, Y, and Z with this.” section. I don’t see people complaining about that. Is there just a break down where if an actual person offers you those same options it’s just so they can fatten their own wallets? We don’t work on commission, we get paid hourly.